Our family consists of myself, my wife, our 11 year old son and a baby on the way practically any minute now. I would like to try and find a game the three of us can play together since we’ll be at home more often with the new baby and I thought it’d be a good way to include the older child in a family activity during a time when the baby becomes the main focus of day to day life.
My wife isn’t a fan of board games like Monopoly or Sorry or Life. She enjoys more active party type games such as Pictionary or those other faster paced word guessing games. Unfortunately, three man Pictionary doesn’t seem like a great time. Are there any quick paced games similar to that which are intended for small 2-3 player groups and are a fair playing field for both 11 year olds and adults? My son wouldn’t have any special game preference, he just likes to play stuff with us.
Just to keep it on track, we do own a Wii but I’m interested in non-video game activities.
Ditto. If your wife doesn’t like Monopoly, Sorry, or Life, she’s not alone. There are far better games out there nowadays. Settlers is a great intro to such games. Also, ask you same question here and get more great answers than you can shake a stick at.
In the pictionary vein, check out Barbarossa. It works fine for 3, and is lots of fun.
I’m skeptical of Settlers just because it seems to be more strategy oriented (and 60-90 minute sessions) and I don’t think she’d go for that. That’s not to put her down… just that after a long day at work, she’s not usually up for heavy recreational thinking and prefers more low-key stuff.
Barbarossa might be fun. She might dig the clay thing and it seems sort of along the same lines as the drawing/guessing games just with clay as opposed to pencil & pad. I’ll have to check that one out.
We like Carcasonne much better than Settlers of Cataan, but it still may be too long for some folks. Our family consists of myself, my husband and our 12 yo. If you have a place to leave the game up, you can limit yourself to an hour of play and then come back another time and finish. We do that with a lot of games.
We also like Ticket to Ride. Which has the added bonus of being somewhat educational as far as geography is concerned.
I sent my wife a link to Barbarossa and she’s in. Thanks!
Still interested in other responses of course. Even stuff more like Settlers might be something my son and I enjoy if it’s 2 player appropriate. We play chess sometimes and occasionally break out the Hero Quest (although the set-up gets to be a chore).
Quiddler is a fun scrabble/gin-like word game in which the person with the larger vocabulary doesn’t necessarily win, as small words help you get rid of your cards just as much as large words.
I like The Red Dragon Inn. It’s a card and counters game based on what D&D characters do between campaigns: spending their loot at seedy bars. It’s got a bit of strategy, but it’s also got hilarious cards.
Zombie Dice is more luck than strategy. And it’s faster paced. Neither of the games takes a long time for three people to complete.
Dominion is a lot of fun, not too heavy on the strategy, and once you learn the rules (which are relatively easy), you can easily bang a game out in 30-45 minutes or so. My 8-year-old can play it, so I’m sure it would be fine for an 11-year-old as well. The basic set (there are expansions) comes with 25 “Kingdom” cards, of which you pick 10 to use in any particular game, so it’s pretty variable and therefore replayable as well. Edited to add: And it works just fine as a 2-player game. So does Carcassonne, by the way.
Oh, and while I’m adding things, Can’t Stop is another quick, fun game. You roll four dice, add two pairs together to get a pair of numbers, and then advance your token up the track of those numbers. Keep rolling until you either advance to the top of a column and claim it; or decide to stop and give the next person their turn; or bust, if you roll numbers that you don’t already have, and are out of pawns. Also a good one for kids, IMO.
The Munchkin card game would be a fun one. Especially if you are familiar with dungeon crawl tropes. (They also have other variations such as sci-fi/space opera and Kung-Fu movies.)
A typical game takes around an hour, and the rules aren’t overly complex.
Actually, pretty much any of the Steve Jackson card-games would be a good choice.
How about Yahtzee? I remember playing it with my family, and I know it’s still around, because there’s one bar here where the regulars are always playing it with the owner.
Qwirkle is an excellent all-ages boardgame that’s very easy to learn, but has enough depth to be challenging to experienced gamers. It’s kind of like Scrabble meets Bejewelled. You try to create sets of blocks that all share either the same color, but no repeated shapes, or the same shape, but no repeated colors. You score based on how long a set you can lay down, with extra points for getting a “qwirkle,” or set of six (the longest possible in the game).
Also, I’m friends with the game’s creator, and can personally vouch that by buying a copy, you’ll be supporting the lively hood of really cool people.
All suggestions so far are for games that require props!
Charades is a good game. It doesn’t require props, but does require you be seated in a room not doing other chores.
Some other games can be played while driving or doing other chores. Twenty Questions and Think of an animal with first letter same as last letter just used are two well known examples, but there are others. I’m Going on a Trip and taking a baseball bat: guess my rule is a good game; don’t know if it has a name or is well known enough to Google for.
I also detected no such request, and am saddened by my chronically poor communication skills that evidently seemed to lead to the opposite implication.
I happen to feel propless games have advantages, and many of them are quite challenging. But I see I’m in a distinct minority (once again ) and will now exit quietly.
Settlers does have a strategy element, but a relatively simple one. You might be able to ease your wife into it through some of the other suggestions. But since it’s largely based on trading, it’s not much good for 2 players.
Blokus and Can’t Stop are really good suggestions, especially if Settlers would be too long. Both are nice and short.
We love Apples to Apples. For three players, I’d suggest playing with a “ghost player”–that is tossing in one random card. We laugh a lot–especially when the random card wins. Probably our most fun, interactive game, for as few as 3 and as many as 10.